001good evening i'd like to call to order the uh november 23rd 2021 regular board meeting of matthackton school district board of directors please rise for the pledge and leading the pledge this evening is skyview upper elementary school student writer yoder hi my name is ryder i'm in fifth grade at skyview please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all and next we also have skyview upper elementary student olu amin omiyali who will say a few things about skyview upper elementary school hi my name is ola omiyale and i'm in sixth grade at skyview i'm here to tell you why i love my school i love skyping
002because of the community the community at skyview is so welcoming and everyone cares for each other the teachers at skyview always help us strive to do our best and make sure that we experience the least amount of stress as possible while being in school and the students at skyview are always full of positive energy that make each day an adventure and i feel honored to be part of such a loving caring and pillorific community thank you [Applause] all right the public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting there was an executive session of the board held this evening prior to this meeting in a classroom in arcola intermediate school for the purposes of addressing three confidential student matters which are on the agenda for this
003evening by way of attendance we have all board members present this evening recognition of guests and scheduled speakers dr zurby thank you madam president this evening we have three guests and scheduled speakers our first is our skyview upper elementary principal ms berkel who will be uh introducing some outstanding employees uh in terms of our award of excellence ms berkel good evening thank you for having me here tonight and first i would like to just say great job to ryder and oli you spoke very well about skyview and i'm very proud of you i'm also grateful to recognize some of our amazing staff at skyview this evening first i would like to recognize mrs milkey she's a constant warm and genuine asset to skyview she even keeps in contact with her students after they leave skyview
004mrs milke collaborates with her team so that all students feel supported and receive what they need on an individual basis so thank you to mrs milke for your service dedication and commitment to the mathacton school district [Applause] thank you [Music] next we have mr houseman who is a constant positive presence for skyview he focuses on building positive relationships with all of his students so that they can be successful learners he plans lessons and activities that he knows his students will find engaging and fun thank you to mr houseman for bringing your positive attitude and presence to the matthackton school district [Applause] next we have mrs newmarado who is one of skyview's biggest team players her constant willingness to pitch in at a moment's notice makes our students feel safe and cared for mrs newmarado's passion
005for fitness and wellness shine through in her daily teaching thank you to mrs newmarado for your continued passion support of skyview students and staff and your positive presence next is ms delaney who is the first smile you see when you enter skyview her calm and welcoming demeanor sets a positive tone throughout the building ms delaney is always willing to pick up tasks that arise throughout the day and she does so with a smile on her face thank you to ms delaney for your continuous smile positive attitude and support of the matthackton school district [Applause] [Music] next we have mrs reesh her patience and positive demeanor help her students feel safe and confident mrs reese is always there to support her students any way she can even if it means getting on the floor for some
006yoga which i have seen her do before thank you to mrs reece for your kind heart your patience and ongoing support of skyview students and the math acting community [Applause] and next we have donna payton mrs payton brings much experience to skyview's main office when time is of the essence mrs payton's abilities to prioritize and problem sign problem solve shine through mrs payton's attention to detail helps create an inviting office atmosphere throughout the year thank you mrs payton for your dedication to skyview and the methacton school district thank you to all of you for your continued dedications and your constant presence and positive attitude every day it makes such a difference in the lives of our students [Applause] you stop me yes [Applause] thank you miss barrical and thank you skyview upper elementary team you're
007doing an outstanding job this year i appreciate all your efforts next on the agenda we have dr deb euker who is principal of woodland elementary school and is also our administrator in charge of implementing full-day kindergarten in the district as many of you may remember the board of school directors seated before you approved the implementation of full day kindergarten to begin with the start of the 22-23 school year and dr euker has been leading that process and she's here this evening to provide a summary for the board and the public dr eucher hi good evening everyone thank you for having me i'm just waiting for it to pop up [Music] the board members do have a paper copy in front of you okay and dr walsh is going to be sending it to you david
008in just 30 seconds all right so we'll just we'll just take a minute here but as you may recall the the full day kindergarten program uh was something that has been on the on the on the cusp of implementation uh in probably each of the last nine years and as a result of the hard work of our administrators our board of school directors we're able to provide this program for our public now one of the things that we want to make sure that well we we understand um for for a number of years some of the challenges were simply that how do we staff a full day kindergarten program and tonight uh dr uk is going to talk a little bit about that um and i'm trying to buy us time for one more minute
009and we we should have that presentation up shortly dr do you have anything you want to share before you you share one of the presentations yeah most of you who are in the education committee or who saw the notes from the education committee this is going to be a review of that night but the education committee thought it would be important for me to share with the full board so there's not much new from the presentation that was given on the education committee but i'll go through it again um so there we go what's the magic word it's next um so we started out in august giving our kindergarten teachers the opportunity to sign up for three different professional develop semi development seminars and they were from the nelly edge company and the reason we
010got through the nelly edge company was because when i was meeting with the kindergarten teachers there was one person who we had had back here in 2012 and they were very meaningful all the kindergarten teachers loved this presenter so when i went to do the research i believe her name was julie lay and when i went to do the research on judy lay she had actually piggybacked herself with the nelly edge um organization so she is actually one of the researchers and one of the people who um supports the nelly edge seminars so when i found out about that i introduced it to the current kindergarten teachers and they were really excited to have this opportunity so in august i had sent them all an email we got them registered for the seminars and the
011real purpose of these seminars is to promote a multi-sensory approach to kindergarten learning meaning that you're not just teaching your abcs you're really you're singing your abcs you're doing it with your hands you're doing it with sign language all different ways to incorporate multiple senses as you're learning because what the research says is that the more senses that are involved in learning the better it is for your memory so that's where we are currently five out of six of our full-time kindergarten teachers right now are finished with all three of those seminars so oh the magic button yeah this one one to the right there we go so the new kindergarten teachers have been invited twice i think three out of the six are registered for the professional development at that point but they are
012doing another role right now so it's okay our hope is that by february most of them are registered and have at least gone through one of the classes on november 2nd i met with the kindergarten teacher to discuss supplies what i do i have a web page that um keeps them updated with the current things that are happening in full day kindergarten and there i asked for input what they may want as far as the new classrooms into kindergarten and then in on the second we met and discussed those items what we still want to look for is time for the new six teachers who we hired to meet with the current kindergarten teachers so they can start talking and sharing ideas for next year okay so this is the new uh slide from the
013education committee so on november 19th we spoke to dr walsh and i spoke to the kindergarten teachers on november 19th that was the shortened day that we had early dismissal at one o'clock and we did not have kindergarten students in that day so that was a great opportunity for our current kindergarten teachers to finish the professional development seminars that they may not have finished that's how we got five out of six finished at this point from the professional development then dr walsh and i met with them after we gave them time in the morning to finish and we shared ideas regarding the multi-sensory approach about supplies about possible scheduling issues dr walsh talked about math options for next year and we talked about learning through play i also put updates on the teacher web page
014and asked them for suggestions as far as if they had any ideas about the schedule or any ideas they wanted us to consider for next year there was a spot on the new page on the web page for them to add to so moving forward if we look at professional development for the rest of the year we want to try to get those new six uh teachers who we hired the dually certified teachers to complete as much of the nelly edge seminars because what we're hoping is that the new teachers that we hired plus our current kindergarten teachers can talk about these practices and again the nelly edge seminars are not new curriculum it's not new content it's ways to teach and it's different avenues to get the students to read and write more effectively
015so we'd like them to have the opportunity to to share ideas so our hope is that from november well the one day we have left in november and through january we're promoting and giving time to our new six hired kindergarten teachers to um to finish those seminars so that they can talk uh later in the year in february we want to investigate opportunities for the teachers to learn about play and how to have structured play in the classroom march through april we plan to have principal directed zooms where our at that point our teams will be established which kindergarten teachers are at what school new kindergarten teachers are at what school and we'd like to facilitate conversations so that we can promote that planning among the kindergarten teachers and then may 17th we are focused
016on our wonders training um and this is where we're going to put it all together by that point we hope to have a schedule in place so we know how the 120-minute block of ela will look for kindergarten um so just to recap what we've done with human resources so the po the postings came out for duly certified teachers who are interested in teaching kindergarten in early october there were 10 duly certified teachers who applied then there was a panel of administrators who interviewed all 10 and six were chosen and selected as the candidates for the next uh for the full day kindergarten position that happened all in october we want to make sure that we keep the lines of communication open with the current kindergarten teachers as well as the six newly hired teachers
017and one way to do that since we're all in different schools and there's a lot going on is through the full day kindergarten website so i update that periodically and i've asked the teachers that when they want to communicate through the web page that they just send me an email letting me know so that i do make sure i check and see what they have included we did schedule the readiness meetings as well as the registration a lot earlier this year than we have done in the past so that we have an idea as to how many kindergartners are coming to each school so our kindergarten readiness meeting is happening in january this year instead of mid-february it's happening on january 12th and our registration instead of beginning the third week in march is now
018beginning february 1st so we're trying to make everything happen a little bit earlier so moving forward i already talked about the professional development but we are going to have to look at some of the positions that will have to be filled since we have six of internal candidates filling those positions currently um we're going to continue to identify furniture and rooms that and supplies that we need for kindergarten um we're currently working with mr breaker in the business department to determine um where where we're getting what suppliers are giving us some of the materials we are working with the arrowhead principal dr roberts who's looking at the materials that he currently has and what materials can we use from arrowhead that are still in good shape as far as furniture january and march if we
019need to be looking at hiring any tree tiers we hope to do it earlier than we traditionally do and february is when the central office registration begins we will be able to have a good indication by the spring about how much how many kids are in each section and lastly we're going to do another update in march to the education committee for our final review of how the progress towards full day kindergarten is going and that's it any questions any questions for dr euchre to my right ms cancro i don't have any questions but my biggest thank you for bringing this to everybody on the board i think it's important to to show that we're really preparing for the full day kindergarten and really working with the staff to slowly get them ready to do
020this for the year the one big thing too is just really the marketing the marketing to get out there as soon as possible to all of it um to all the community so that they're aware that we have full-day kindergarten so that's my biggest thing is to just push early because even now i i see you know marketing about preschools and full day and there so thank you you're what thank you ms can anyone else mr navarrette yeah thanks i was i just want to echo the same thing that jen said is that it's i think it's critically important that we get the message out as early as possible through as many channels as possible to let people know that full-day kindergarten is here in mathacton anyone else on my right on my left any
021questions for you seeing none doctor euger thank you so much for being with us this evening and you have a wonderful thanksgiving thank you you too thank you everyone have a great evening i'll just leave the magic clicker there next on the on the agenda for guests and schedule speakers this evening is school board director recognition and i would like if uh mr navarette and miss hall would please come into the front of the uh the table here this evening and i'll ask uh miss kelly to come down to the podium and i'll ask our board president and vice president to join me up front with mr navarette and ms hall ugh [Music] okay good evening everyone it is my honor to offer a few remarks in recognition of two of our sitting board members
022tonight is the final meeting from mrs hull and mr navarette as members of the methecton board of school directors ms hall and mr navarrete began their service to the district in 2017. thank you to thank you both for your service to this community and all you have done to support the students the staff and families of the methectone school district so at this time with everyone please join me in a round of applause for miss hall and mr navarette tonight with the help of our board president and our board vice president we'd like to present miss hall and mr neverett with plex that read with thanks for your dedicated service methachton board of school directors december 4th 2017 to november 23rd 2021. congratulations and thank you so much for all you've done [Applause] you know
023[Applause] madam president that ends the guests and scheduled speakers for this evening i'll turn the the meeting back over to you thank you dr zerby um just one final note i remember six years ago going through the initial training to sit on this board through pennsylvania school board association and part of that training they talk about about how many hours you put in each week each month over the course of your your time sitting on a school board and i can say confidently that mr navarrete and miss hall have far exceeded that anticipated number of hours i don't think that it's possible to quantify exactly what they've put in over the last four years and that contribution will be missed thank you both moving on to reports we have our various committee reports that will
024be appended to the agenda uh do we have an update on dei from miss purdue and mrs drummond so yeah it's been a couple months i think since we've had an update on dei um this is this update is that uh dr gallagher landis presented a summary of the priorities from the mafactan school district dei committee to the general public in september and those priorities are listed on the dei section of the district website the administrative team will be reviewing these matters and will consider items for adoption in the strategic plan the dei office has provided feedback requested from high school students as they work to create more multicultural opportunities at the high school the office is also working to develop educational opportunities for students on exhibiting appropriate behaviors regarding matters of diversity equity and
025inclusion interviews were held for the position of supervisor of diversity equity and inclusion while there is not a recommendation for the board to consider at this time the administration is discussing the qualifications and duties of the position along with the experiences had by other districts with similar roles to provide a revised job description for the board's consideration that greater aligns with the needs of our students staff and community thank you mr drummond uh for the intermediate unit ms reese um a couple of things the meeting was uh november 17th and there just like we're seeing two board members this being their last meeting there were seven board members that of the iu that will no longer be there um and the biggest thing i wanted to share which i know dr zerby already shared the
026email with you is the iu is presenting a workshop for all montgomery county board directors not just new board directors i know we've all gone to some trainings there as new board directors i do not see our future board directors here but i'm sure they will be made aware of it and i also saw that miss drummond already signed up but it is for budgets and it's on december 15th and it's um virtual so there is also an in-person um session on january 26 and i'm 99.9 sure it's the same topic i will i just have i'm i just forgot to clarify that but i'm almost positive so if you're not able to make it on the 15th you can go in person on the 26th um the only other big news to share is
027and i didn't do a very good job of explaining this um at my last report but in the new early learning center that we still have not had a chance to actually go see there was a um they opened up a partial hospitalization program and the iu received um kudos from montgomery county for for how well that um that that is going so i just wanted to share that and the rest was just a pretty basic information um [Music] i will say just like everywhere human resources has been very very busy they have 37 new employees 17 resignations three retirements so with a staff that large they have been just as busy as as uh dr sergini has been here um [Music] and that's really i think that's the most but if you haven't opened
028that email yet please do so and thank you liz for signing up and that's it so thank you [Music] you want to do the iu the tech center our tech center meeting was november 15th it was probably one of our quietest meetings of the year um the biggest thing i i wanted to share we wanted to share with the board is there was talk of two new programs starting in the spring and due to supply chain issues which is happening everywhere and very specific equipment that they need um they are going to delay that until the fall but things are still going strong and there will be information about a pickup for holiday party since they're just gonna wait uh hold out a little bit longer to open up some of uh the restaurant there
029is still curbside pickup and those kinds of things but the holiday party will be pick up as well which information will be coming shortly that's all i have thank you miss reese now for our student board representative report mr shah good evening everyone in november our first parking period back in school ended the methacny national honor society induction occurred on thursday november 18th and it went quite well with 40 new inductees joining furthermore the myth acting closed out an extremely successful fall fall sports season especially for our girls field hockey girls tennis and boys cross country chains so our winter sports season will be beginning with high hopes during the past month the methacny theater company presented the play the dining room and the cabaret fundraiser called altogether now both productions went extremely well on
030wednesday november 17th methachton hosted their powder puff game in which the seniors beat the juniors for the first time in five years on nov with a score of 28 to 18. additionally there is a food drive hosted by the student council which emperor which ended on november 19th a thanks goes out to everyone who donated lastly regarding the month of december each club will receive a wishlist from us uh my bad each club will receive a wish list from a family to sponsor for the holidays the clubs will purchase rap and gifts items to each family during the upcoming holiday season thank you thank you lots of good stuff happening at the high school and now for the myth acting education foundation mr beam thanks very much i wanted to make sure all of you
031were aware and i also want the community to know that five days ago our wonderful executive director of the foundation nikki krelovich told us that she was resigning her position to take another position with another non-profit and i know all of you know how terrific a job nikki has done in the over three and a half years that she has served in this role she's done a marvelous job she's grown in so many ways the foundation has benefited tremendously the entire math acting community has benefited from everything that she has done and she will be missed the good news is that that position is going to keep her in the area she is still a methactin parent she will be here she's going to be active in her own inimitable way and we're delighted that
032that's going to be the case so it's not the last that we will see from her and she's going to be a huge supporter of mathakton for as long as she's in this area and beyond so since we got that news we have moved ahead we've developed a new job description for the executive director position it's going to be circulated it's being circulated right now among the board for final review and after thanksgiving it's going to be posted and we have already received some preliminary inquiries from people who are interested in the position so i'm confident that we are going to attract candidates who will be of the caliber like nikki and we're looking forward to new beginnings with the new individual whenever that happens we are in no particular rush we want to make
033sure we get the right person nikki leaves very to say large shoes doesn't quite sound right but you know with what she has done um it's it's just been a joy to to work with her and what what she's done for this district is uh is is very very special so the new person will have significant shoes to fill but we're confident that we're going to find someone who's going to be able to help the foundation continue with it's a very important mission of serving this community serving the wonderful students of this school district so i just wanted to wish you all a very happy and wonderful and safe and healthy thanksgiving and i'll look forward to speaking with you further as this process develops thanks very much thank you mr beam and now for
034communications miss kelly good evening again this morning the district held a media day event right here on the skyview arcola campus to announce the launch of a new safety program with bus patrol our local law enforcement partners and first student the district's fleet of 100 school buses are being equipped with stop arm cameras to deter drivers from illegally passing stopped school buses and lower providence township in worcester township the camera system is positioned to capture vehicles that pass a school bus while the stop arm is extended and flashing red lights are activated law enforcement will review and confirm that a violation occurred before a civil violation notice is generated by bus patrol and sent to the register owner of the vehicle the program will roll out in the new year and will include a warning
035period before going into effect so a very special thank you goes to all of you up there as well as everyone who was able to make it out today for helping to make this event a success um channel 6 and channel 10 both came out i understand that we definitely made air on channel 6 and channel 10 mr bricker were sharing with me some video from channel 10. so i'll be looking for that and i'll make sure that i share that out with everyone because it's wonderful for us to get positive coverage on the news we're doing wonderful things here and people need to know about it and we've also shared this exciting news on the district's website and social media channels and as a parting note i hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving thank
036you [Music] thank you miss kelly and now for the superintendent's report dr zerby thank you madam president this evening i i just have uh two quick announcements the first is that as ms kelly is waking making her way up the aisle it's important to recognize that she has been instrumental not only in bringing the news to events like the stop arm camera bus patrol piece but also been very instrumental in making positive inroads in terms of our communication to our families and our students as an example she has spearheaded the community conversations uh monthly newsletter that includes not only a small segment of information about how important things are going are going across our district and our community but includes a video segment that's often featuring myself and other administrators talking about specific important matters
037of the district as well as includes a an alumni section that is just been outstanding so i ask that members of the board remember the community continue to look at community conversations and read the alumni features sections because there's some outstanding examples of the work that you do as board members that our teachers do as teachers and that we do as a school community uh to grow people and to make them successful so with that i want to say one last thing i want to wish everyone here on this board and everyone in our community a wonderful and happy thanksgiving thank you dr zurby at this time we will take public comment on board action items this is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters that are to be decided upon as outlined on
038the agenda we ask you to keep your comments to four minutes or less we may choose to respond to those matters following conclusion of comments usually when we get to those items in the agenda and again you could just introduce yourself with your name and municipality jim malik warster uh payment of the bills i've asked this question before uh did did anybody look at these bills board wise anybody anybody from the board to look at these bills if you did can you just raise your hand i want to know who looked at these bills disappointing um i'm talking about the 51 000 in legal bills from sweet stevens can anybody tell me what we got for fifty one thousand dollars i mean i have a good idea what you got for fifty one thousand dollars
039i was sitting in harrisburg at a hearing for your appeal of your right to know situation and you didn't get a whole lot it's not going to be good for you uh that i can tell you um the reason i mentioned the bills at a prior meeting i alerted you to the information i possessed that showed you were double paying legal invoices and at a follow-up meeting i basically asked what the status was whether you had it did an investigation or an audit you had mr bricker state publicly that there's no evidence that you're paying invoices twice i i got the email right here three of our invoices were paid twice it's right here so either there was no investigation or the investigation was not thorough so i'm gonna again suggest that you perform an
040investigation into why you're double paying legal invoices and you should also perform an audit of your legal invoices especially when you got two million dollars worth of billings for legal invoices i mean i've only got one email my question is how many more are out there you know how much of the 2 million is double pay and was it picked up so you know i would appreciate it if you would do an actual investigation and a audit thanks anyone else with public comment on board action items [Music] uh brian earnshaw lower providence um regarding the list of bills and reviewing this month i noted there were 114 thousand dollars in payments to law firms over the last 12 months trailing 12 months total payments just under 2 million dollars average 162 000 a month and
041in fact 11 of the last 12 months payments to law firms have exceeded a hundred thousand dollars each month so i'm hoping that the steps you're taking will be done quickly and they will be effective to reduce the amounts we're paying to law firms regarding the audited financial statements for the last fiscal year um could show me how much the budget surplus was what the final amount was and given me that amount can you provide how much was set aside for charter school funding and master plan spending and also how much was the final tally on the legal fees spending over budget also regarding the audit were there any internal control deficiencies reported to manage reported to administration or the board and did the auditors have any concerns with the findings from the state performance
042audit related transportation um regarding the enrollment projecting projection vendor um are any concerns with this that this firm is based out of portland oregon um seems like it might be a challenge for them to do the work of a projection here if they're across the other side of the country um the proposal says that the administration has one week to review reports and drafts before they become final i don't think that's enough time um other question is was malone mcbroom invited to um participate in this proposal and if not why since the board relied on them extensively in building a 50 million dollar elementary school has flow analytics done in enrollment projections for any other school district of pennsylvania or montgomery county in finalizing the report will there be an opportunity for the public to
043see the report and ask any questions or provide comments on the report before it becomes final will this study address the excess capacity in arcola i noted in dr zurby's presentation last week it was the same slide that shows utilization of arcola is less than 60 and projected to be so for the next 10 years [Music] and then finally regarding hr matters supplemental contracts i noted that 17 of the 21 items are being approved retroactively i'd like to get honest if you give me an understanding of why that is the case and if they since they are retroactive what type of review and uh proof was done to show that the people who were in these positions were doing this work at the beginning of the school year the majority the ones that are being
044approved retroactively apply to the full 2021-22 school year thank you [Music] anyone else with public comment on board action items seeing none we will move on with the agenda may i have a motion to approve the october 19th 2021 work session meeting minutes in october 26 2021 regular meeting minute says attached ms reese is there a second mr navarette any comments from the board all those in favor motion carries 9-0 fiscal items mr bricker [Applause] thank you madam president tonight for your approval we have the list of bills treasurer's report budgetary transfers the financial statements and single audit report the enrollment projection vendor the high school canopy project has one change order eagleville project has four change orders and there's a repository tax sale okay does anyone want to take any of these fiscal items
045separately i would like to take um nine e separately please okay any others okay i will take a motion then to a pr approve all fiscal items with the exception of nine e ms drummond is there a second mr mcginnis any comments from the board all those in favor okay motion carries 9-0 and now i'll take a motion to approve item 9e under fiscal mr navarrete is there a second mr mcginnis any comments from the board seeing none all those in favor oh i'm sorry was there a comment oh yeah go ahead i'm sorry i didn't see you there i mean there was a couple questions that were asked related to how we're going to present the enrollment report i assume there's a presentation that comes with the 23 thousand dollars is that the correct
046dr german that's correct any other questions i know we discussed last week that the the process for choosing this vendor and we've worked with other area business managers from other school districts so i'm assuming we got this recommendation from one of the area schools i can't say which one no i don't expect you to know but i do that was part of the process was we we talked to other we meaning you mr bricker talk to other business managers for other school districts we did send out an email yes okay thank you any other comments i'm not sure that's true though that they're they're local they have local i don't remember in that case so i thought we should okay but part of what i get was getting it is a part of our process
047for for getting proposals for this was to talk to area school districts yes they're currently doing the uh district of philadelphia yeah and i i believe that eminem um if correct me if i'm wrong refused to provide a services at the end of that that contract uh in the last time and is that correct there there was a that we want eminem to come down here and speak towards some of the issues and eminem from connecticut did not want to participate as i correct dr jervy uh well basically what what they said is uh they they were they were no longer going to be providing services to the school district yeah they they were not included in in this process any other questions comments all those in favor opposed okay the motion carries eight one
048[Music] thank you mr bricker and i don't even have to look at my agenda i can assume that it's personnel items because we have dr sergini good evening madam president and thank you for your consideration this month we have the following personnel items i will highlight those that are additions from the work session we have three resignations professional vivian mcintyre special education instructor at woodland for retirement at the conclusion of the school year and brian michaels special education instructor at arcola for retirement we thank vivian and brian for their service to the students of the thacton school district and wish them well and susan duffy special education instructor at arrowhead we thank sue for her dedication to the students of mathacton and we wish her well also three resignations classified including the addition of christine
049pagnotti paraprofessional at eagleville we thank christine for her service to the students of mathakton and we wish her well three employments professional including the addition of catherine dougherty special education instructor at arrowhead we welcome catherine to mathacton and look forward to the good work that she will do with our students one employment classified one change of status professional two uncompensated leaves professional both of which are additions one uncompensated leave classified which is an addition one sabbatical leave a series of supplemental contracts including the addition of one mentor contract and two curriculum coordinator contracts and the addition of a series of volunteers to the approved volunteer list for the district thank you thank you dr surgini does anyone want to take any of the personnel items separately okay then i will take a motion to approve
050all items under personnel ms reese and a second mr mcginnis comments from the board miss reece um just i as you said the the resignations were new from last week so i just wanted to acknowledge those are three big losses and wish um those teachers well i assume [Music] the uh catherine doherty dougherty is a replacement for susan duffy or not or maybe not uh she is a replacement position okay it does okay and then are we still looking for a special education person at our cola we have two current positions posted one is a special education position at arcola the other one is at arrowhead okay and how's that looking we're in the process uh [Laughter] the positions have not yet closed they close next week i believe monday and tuesday okay okay just
051because i know where i work we're struggling so thank you for that and thank you to those people that took the job and then one other question the mathematic instructor at the high school um is that is that uncompensated leave will we be seeing is it possible to see that as a another extension or is that it i forget i know there's all these rules that would be the second semester so that would be the second and final semester okay okay thank you and very busy as always any other comments um dr sergini if you could just briefly um talk about why there are i know that there's a lot of circumstances why we end up with retroactive certainly it happens almost every month madam president some of it is the ebb and flow the
052nature of our meetings here or that they are the third and fourth tuesdays of the month so there is a lot of business that transpires in between the meetings in addition to that sometimes there are unexpected needs and there are for example attendance at an iep meeting which is retroactive other times they are positions that we have been working to fill and then we are able to fill them for example some of the club sponsors and they have been filling those positions since our october meetings and they are retroactive so that's why they appear that way on the agenda unlike some districts methachton even though we you approve positions in the budget we also take the extra step of having you approve the actual personnel who are included in that as well so you have
053two opportunities to approve both the expenditure and the budget as well as the actual individuals in the position so uh you see them in the form of the supplemental contracts and just the nature of the oven plus ebb and flow of hr is that sometimes they are going to appear retroactively but i'm confident they've been doing the job thank you dr sergini i know with some of these clubs you know it says effective for the 21 22 school year but it doesn't necessarily mean that the work for that club even under normal circumstances would have started with day one it's just that it's for the duration of the school year correct right okay thank you for your clarification on that thank you any other comments or questions from the board seeing none all those in
054favor motion carries 9-0 thank you dr sergey thank you madam president and without even getting to it next we have curriculum dr walsh good evening thank you madam president i'm seeking approval this evening for curriculum revisions and updates to the planned course documents and also the revised 2122 instructional calendar to reflect the act 80 changes but as a reminder there is no impact to the student uh calendar for the 21 22 school year it's more just information that goes to pde thank you dr walsh can i have a motion to approve the items under curriculum and programs mr mcginnis is there a second miss purdue any comments from the board ms reese i just wanted to say and i could have said it when dr euchre was up and i just decided to say it
055now i've become a little obsessed with podcasts um because i'm a little late to the party and i was uh listening to one called the school board wars and it was fascinating and in it because we tend to live in arma fact in bubble or where i work right next door in another montgomery county public school we tend to live in our bubbles so this school board wars was about pennsylvania but another district and it was really fascinating so i recommend it to anybody who has a 45 an hour and 90 minutes but um in it it talked about the struggle for school districts to keep going and progressing with education during the last very difficult 20 months and i just want a shout out to our staff and our administrators um and the board
056for continuing that educational work to know that we're going to have full-day kindergarten in the fall and to know that kovid did not stop that to know that we're adding classes to know that teachers are struggling and yes some are probably resigning and retiring unexpectedly or earlier than they thought and to know that this district is trying its best to hang on during this difficult time and move forward and get this school bus arms and everything else is a real tribute to every single person at mathacton so thank you for the kindergarten thank you for this thank you for all the hiring thank you to the staff i know i am grateful at this thanksgiving time that we are able to vote on these things and continue the education during this so thank you miss
057reece any other comments on curriculum and programs okay all those in favor okay the motion carries 9-0 thank you dr walsh thank you happy thanksgiving and now moving on to policy and mr regina thank you madam president for the board as discussed in the work session of the major items on this board agenda for policy under first read would be zero zero six meetings which is respective of some of the new sunshine law updates uh with when agendas need to be posted and which items can be added to the agenda and at what times so of all other items just some necessary uh some no updates at all they were just within their five-year periodic rotation and all others were pronoun uh changes thank you mr regina may i have a motion to approve the
058policies listed under 12b for a second reading ms hull is there a second mr mcginnis any comments from the board seeing none all those in favor the motion carries 9-0 thank you mr regina and moving on to other dr zurby madam president we have gifts and donations approved backpack donation received from a generous individual as noted in the list of twenty five dollars and ninety cents under trips approved the mathematical girls basketball trip to the boardwalk classic new jersey on december 27th and 28th and approve item 13c a research study approved amy percival uh instructor of music education at the university of delaware to conduct a research study at arcola intermediate school between november 24th through december 31st under the supervision of sharon saul arcola our orchestral director the research study is entitled students descriptions
059of moving singing and chanting in one middle school orchestra program an intrinsic study case study and then we have the mciu contract approved the agreement with the exploration's mental health services and under agreements we have three settlement agreements uh and release for student uh and as listed there student number special language and terms for the settlement agreement approved by the district solicitor the second one is approved settlement agreement and release for student 250250 with special language in terms of settlement agreement approved by the district solicitor and the third one approved the settlement agreement and release for student 250953 the special language and term settlement of the settlement agreement approved by this district solicitor thank you dr zurby does anyone want to take any of these items under other separately saying none okay and then i'll
060have a motion to approve all the items under 13. one for mr winners and a second from mr never any comments from the board mr mcginnis uh dr zurby just to clarify on 13c the research study is strictly opt-in opt-out correct thank you any other comments or questions seeing none all those in favor okay motion carries 9-0 and with that we are moving on we have dates for board members calendars right now we just have our december 6th reorganization and regular board meeting that will be happening at the high school auditorium not in this auditorium here because of a schedule conflict um and at that point i think at that meeting we will have our agenda our dates on our calendars moving forward um for the new year uh anything for old business mr winners
061yeah i don't know i guess dr herbert could you give us a quick update on the uh negotiation or whatever we're calling it with lower providence related to audubon school on a on a a way forward um if there's any progress made on that and and if not um since there has been some changes in both boards that maybe we should consider in the first quarter bringing that back to the board for uh reconsideration uh certainly the board can uh choose any time to come back and reconsider that but at this moment in time i've been working with the district solicitor who has drafted a a a a proposal uh we are in the process of scheduling a date to actually review that proposal which then we would uh offer uh for the board to
062to read and have input into and then we would then submit that uh once changes and modifications would occur to the lower providence township for their feedback so if that's the plan hopefully we can get that all wrapped up before the end of december and uh be able to you know submit something to lord providence but we certainly can't do that without your input but if there's any other uh reason for us to delay that or to stop that um and bring it back for for you know uh more detailed discussion about how to proceed forward we can certainly do that i just recommend that if there is there's concerns about that particular process that we're in right now just reach out to our to me or to the board president and we can uh
063you know decide how we want to accommodate those concerns anything else for old business anything for new oh old business mr never is it old business to talk about the um the bus patrol is it is it too old yet i'll i'll grant some leeway they can be old business or new business i just want to give a thanks to tim bricker again for all of the work that he did on this um i went through my emails today and i saw that we started this in july of 2020 and there was a lot going on in july of 2020 and for me to bring this forward and say hey what do you think about throwing this into the mix too is is a lot and i'm really proud that we persevered and to have
064that today was really a big win for student safety so thank you and if i may add on that thank you miss hall you were the originator of the idea so thank you so much for bringing that and absolutely mr bricker thank you for running with the ball anything else for old business mr neverett if i can say a couple words we just say it's been the honor of a lifetime to have served our math acting community for the last four years what our school district has accomplished in this time especially considering the challenges of a global pandemic is nothing short of remarkable four years ago jen liz mary and i ran for these offices with a clear vision for what we wanted to accomplish and i'm proud to say that we've checked off most
065of those boxes and then some we often talk about the team of 10 that you see up here week after week but it's really a team of dozens and even hundreds that are responsible for achieving these successes because we've all accomplished these things together first and foremost our community has been asking for full-day kindergarten for well over a decade and it's this team that finally got it done thanks to dr angstadt and her team we successfully piloted reach our intensive mental health support program at arcola and subsequently rolled out the same supports in all of our schools at a time when our students have needed it the most this year we rolled out the soar program in the elementary schools to improve inclusion and be better at meeting our students where they are we reduced
066class sizes for our youngest learners and rejected increases for grades five and six we rolled out one-to-one devices to all of our students during the pandemic in the middle of a supply train crunch that was a fun labor day weekend in the basement of farina um and we've continued that now we've seen increased math and ela instructional minutes in grades five and six and introduce foreign language to all students in grades seven and eight we've seen our career readiness programs blossom we're up to 58 honors ap and dual enrollment classes thanks to our incredible music staff we've been named one of the best communities in music education for five years running we added boys lacrosse girls volleyball arcola we hit an incredible home run with the unified track and field program at the high school
067we added all these programs while keeping taxes increases to a minimum the fourth lowest increase in montgomery county over these four years so thank you mr bricker ms penza and the entire business office for all of your work to get us there we successfully negotiated contracts with all of our stakeholder unions and in the process we fixed the very broken salary schedule that will help us retain teachers especially in this challenging market we significantly strengthened our leadership team across the board with a renewed focus on curriculum which as we all know is the actual business of what we do in this district we've added and refinanced long-term debt to take advantage of historically low interest rates and smartly made long-needed investments in our district's infrastructure and this is where i might go on even longer
068we established a 10-year facilities master plan that will guide this district for years to come we focused on building envelopes and core infrastructure addressing the major points of failure that went unaddressed in prior years just to hit the high notes we've repaired more than 300 000 square feet of f d-rated roofs across the district we renovated the arcola auditorium replacing the failed roof and ceiling we're placing an upgrade in the end-of-life hvac system and improving our ada accommodations across the district we upgraded fire suppression fire alarm security systems we made needed improvements to our data network and we upgraded our long added date phones to new voip systems we corrected and repaired foundation and masonry issues across the district and added canopies and new concrete pads to effectively deal with a water runoff we finally
069addressed the moisture issues that have plagued eagleville since it opened nearly 20 years ago we have a new properly installed this time fielding building facade and we're replacing the end-of-life hvac system with one that will control both temperature and humidity we've now done the design work in preparation for similar hvac upgrades at the high school hopefully starting in 2023 then i hold you all to that and then at the other schools thereafter and next fall we will open a new arrowhead elementary school and we'll do so at more than four million dollars under our original budget my one regret is that we have not yet brought audubon um to its suitable final disposition um but it certainly hasn't been for lack of trying we're not for code but i think we would certainly be talking
070about a new community center in lower providence today and i'm still hopeful that we can reach that deal on transportation one of the first things that we did was to establish board oversight of the district's transportation program and have students have since held first student accountable for their performance i know many of you out there remember what a hot mess our buses were six years ago right after they were outsourced but the situation is a hundred times better today thanks the efforts of mr bricker and our transportation team and notably as we just mary just talked about just today thanks to the thanks to her own efforts we announced the long-waited partnership with bus patrol to equip our buses with cameras and help deter and ultimately penalize the inconsiderate drivers that endanger our children when
071they blow past stop buses since i can hear kim saying wrap it up navarrette um some quick thank yous to our administration and staff uh you guys are what make with hacked and special thank you all for your commitment to our community our school district and our children keep doing what you are doing you are why the facton is a wonderful place to raise a family dr zurby thank you for your leadership your professionalism and especially your steady hand throughout the last 20 months over the last four years we've faced innumerable challenges and we've tackled them all together i appreciate the many difficult and even sometimes heated conversations we've had but all of them have come but out of all of them have come the best steps forward from fact to my fellow board members
072what our team has accomplished for our schools and our community in the last four years is nothing short of remarkable your vision your commitment your willingness to openly debate the issues facing our schools and reach compromise compromise are all what makes this board successful i leave knowing that our schools are good hands and that our work together has laid the foundation from the fact and be successful for years to come thank you anyone else for older new business miss hall well i had some words but not as many as mr navarette um i just you know reflecting that this is our final meeting and we're approaching thanksgiving i just have a lot of gratitude i wanted to thank our administration dr zurby mr regina the cabinet and our principals for their tireless commitment to education
073during the most challenging period of instruction in our country i thank our teachers support staff custodial staff maintenance and others that are the heart and soul of the schools you've shown amazing resilience throughout such trying times you all show up each day to provide the atmosphere to grow young minds and your dedication is remarkable please know you have my appreciation i'm grateful to have the opportunity to see the excitement in the students eyes as we expand educational opportunities and programs in the district the methachton students are smart creative and talented and i'm so proud this is my home district to my family i thank you for your patience and understanding i look forward to having more time at home however i have three teenagers and i don't think they're that excited to have me home
074to my fellow board members thank you for your support we may not have always agreed on all matters but we always try to find a way to respect and understand each other's perspective i wish our future board members success during their term i hope our community can move forward despite the continuing challenges we face and we can all continue to support public education despite the challenges it's been an honor and a privilege to serve the methectone community thank you anyone else miss drummond um you're tough to follow um i i just do have a matter for new business uh regarding the fact and backpack program and that is to support our families in need this holiday season we are having a drive of gift cards appreciated in 25 increments if you want to find out
075more about it the maftin backpack facebook page which is at my fact and backpack has a graphic you can send them to dr danny falston or to your school's guidance counselor and um we appreciate the support our community is always amazingly generous whenever the memphactin backpack program puts out an ask and i'm i'm grateful for that all the time so thank you very much and if you want to take a look we sure would appreciate it anyone else with older new business okay so with that we will move on to courtesy of the floor this is an opportunity for residents to make comment on matters that are or may be before the board we ask you to keep comments to four minutes or less we may choose to respond to matters following conclusion of the
076comments and please be sure to introduce yourself with your name and municipality [Music] jim moloch or sester um your citation of uh your board policy 903 is incorrect and that's what i'm going to talk about first i'm going to say i heard eminem mentioned you guys should be getting your money back they weren't even close somebody do an analysis of how far they're off i think it's 150 students at least that's what seven classrooms um you should be getting your money back not trying to hire them again at the october 26th meeting board meeting mr chairman you made a special effort to recite the board policy 903 the selected sections the courtesy of the floor you then used or in this case misused board policy 903 to censor mr bradbury a candidate's spouse mr bradbury
077wanted to address a matter that was brought before the board by board member purdue under new business it was a matter before the board despite board member purdue discussing the matter for over 10 minutes during new business you silenced mr bradbury because you felt that his comments were quote not about board business you were wrong your solicitor stated that mr bradbury only had the right to speak about a matter that quote is or may come before the board i don't think either one of you two guys read your own board policy because here's what your board policy says the board shall provide an opportunity at each open meeting of the board for residents and taxpayers to comment on matters of concern on matters of concern why don't you read that piece not only um was
078the misleading care mailer a matter of concern but it was brought before the board by board member purdue during new business your ruling was totally wrong not based on foreign policy now i brought this up before board policy when you violate board policy what are the ramifications where is it in black and white that okay a board member violates board policy we do this is there any i think it deals with violations of board policy i mean i already know the answer i asked dr zerby there is none you need to establish a code of conduct for you guys so this crap doesn't happen again um finally got my right to no request on dei uh i asked dr zurby i had heard that there's no cv for dr campbell that's false dave here it
079is guys gave it to me what's the story tell me you don't have it here it is i got it finally no 12 months took to get it but i finally got it [Music] has dr campbell been on sabbatical anybody know i got an email here from miss purdue between her and mr dr campbell saying the guy's been on sabbatical since uh september of 2020. maybe you can explain that i mean i don't get it the other question i have is um why is miss perdue inviting him dr campbell to the private dei committee's meetings i got another email from miss purdue inviting him we paid for the guy 30 grand what's he doing at the private meetings of the dei committee so if you can answer that be great thanks [Music] anyone else for
080courtesy of the floor [Music] uh brian archaeologist um thank you for answering some of my questions but there were quite a few that went unanswered um regarding the budget surplus um i presume that now the audit report has been approved that'll be posted and could give me a sense of when that might be posted um i know that'll tell me how much the surplus is and how much is set aside but what that might not tell me is how much legal fees went over budget for the last fiscal year um so hopefully that can be answered at some point um and you should have my email address if you want to email that information um regarding arcola it it just as you know i bring this up constantly that it really sticks with me that
081um that utilization is not even being considered to be addressed um every slide shows that it's less than 60 utilized and will be for the foreseeable future um something needs to be done i mean that's just highly inefficient use of facilities just like audubon is sitting empty right now is highly inefficient and should probably just be sold as opposed to a community center um and part of the non-answering questions is part of the reason why you're right to know legal fees are so high um i find many times that i don't get answers to questions so i leave these meetings and go home and file it right to their request um because i can't get answers and then there's a legal review even for the simplest of writes in our requests which i don't really
082understand just you know a document should be readily available um so that's clearly part of the problem so i think you ought to give some consideration to um responding to all questions that are asked at this meeting and if you don't have an answer at the time if i could get the common courtesy of just saying we'll send you an email with that information so that was it thanks anyone else for courtesy of the floor all right mr mcginnis meeting adjourned happy thanksgiving everyone [Music]